Masako Miki creates larger-than-life-size, felt-covered forms drawn from the Japanese folk belief in yokai (shape-shifters) who can disguise themselves in any number of different forms. Miki creates the semi-abstract, sculptural forms utilizing brilliant colors and sets them into a magical environment suggesting another reality. The installation moves from the three-dimensional forms to abstract images on the floor and walls, conveying a sense of expanding boundaries.MORE about Masako Miki / MATRIX 273

Join us for the opening lecture of the spring 2019 A+D Thursdays Lecture Series, which is shaped around three key words: Creativity, Migration and Transformation. Stan Lai, co-curator of the series, is one of the most acclaimed playwrights/directors in Asia.MORE about Creativity — A New Approach with Stan Lai

After 45 years spent re-inventing the string quartet, Kronos is committing to the next generation of musical innovators, with Fifty for the Future. The ambitious and much-lauded commissioning initiative returns to Berkeley, where Cal Performances is among the project’s legacy partners, with a program of new works by a diverse international cohort of composers.MORE about Kronos Quartet — Fifty for the Future

Scottish violin star Nicola Benedetti lends her sumptuous, gleaming tone to Bach's glorious Chaconne from Partita No. 2, and is joined by renowned pianist Alexei Grynyuk for richly Romantic sonatas by Prokofiev and Richard Strauss. She also performs the West Coast premiere of a new solo violin work by Wynton Marsalis. MORE about Nicola Benedetti, violin; Alexei Grynyuk, piano

Somini Sengupta

Yefim Bronfman last graced the stages of Cal Performances with a heroic cycle of the complete Prokofiev piano sonatas. Here, he further reveals the emotional breadth of his musical temperament, in works ranging from Schumann's mercurial Humoreske, to Debussy's richly impressionistic Suite bergamasque, and Schubert's late-period gem the Sonata in C minor.MORE about Yefim Bronfman, piano

Lunch Poems presents Ari Banias, author of Anybody, which was named a finalist for the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and the PEN Center USA Literary Award. His poems have appeared in various journals and he is the recipient of numerous fellowships.MORE about Lunch Poems — Ari Banias

In a diverse program that connects Beethoven, Bernstein, the Beatles, and contemporary works by Libby Larsen, David Lang, and Gabriel Kahane, the men's vocal ensemble Cantus sings of the challenges of connecting in our modern age.MORE about Cantus — Alone Together